How to Recover your MultiBit Wallet Seed/Keys with Password (HD & Classic)

5 min readDec 12, 2023

MultiBit was one of the first wallets to be launched apart from the Bitcoin Core reference software in 2011. However, in 2017, the service and development of MultiBit was discontinued. This always presents users with the challenge of recovering their Bitcoins. Another challenge is the fact that there were two versions of MultiBit wallets, namely MultiBit Classic and MultiBit HD.

This confuses some users, as this also makes the recovery process for the respective wallet quite different. The options that MultiBit had to offer at the time were in many ways no different from the classic wallets that are popular today. However, the software struggled with various bugs at the time, and when SegWit was introduced in 2017 the developers of KeepKey, who had taken over the project, no longer saw any chances for the further development of MultiBit.

Those who had a MultiBit wallet at that time, and have not touched it to this day, also still own their full share of the two forks Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin SV (BSV). So that’s one more reason to restore the wallet.

Do MultiBit wallets still work?

The short answer is no, MultiBit wallets no longer work. MultiBit was discontinued in 2017 but all Bitcoin stored in the wallet was not lost. You can no longer use your MultiBit wallet to send Bitcoin, but you can still use the Bitcoin you have within your wallet. Once you have recovered your wallet you can export your Bitcoin to another wallet that is popular today and start using it.

Recover MultiBit Classic Wallet with Password

Sending and receiving via MultiBit’s software is no longer easily possible for various reasons. The wallet in both versions is not a full node. Therefore, the MultiBit wallet does not download its copy of the Bitcoin blockchain but relies on synchronizing via the service that has been discontinued for years and is therefore no longer available. If you still manage to get the software working, which is possible in principle, then you will encounter the following difficulties:

The wallet does not support dynamic transaction fees. As a result, the transaction can fail or sometimes get stuck in the mempool for a long time if the fee is too low.
MultiBit wallet does not support SegWit addresses, so Bitcoin cannot be transferred to the associated address format.
Wallets that have made a particularly large number of transactions will have trouble synchronizing with the network. There is also a risk that the transaction size is too large when trying to send all coins in one go.
MultiBit has several bugs that have not been fixed to date and transactions often fail for this reason.

How to Recover MultiBit Classic Keys — Step by StepLocate your MultiBit Wallet files on your computer The wallet file can be found in the following folder, depending on the operating system:

Mac OS

~/Library/Application Support/MultiBit/<wallet-name>

Windows

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\MultiBit\<wallet-name>

Import and decrypt your wallet using your password You need to decrypt this wallet file first to get the keys. For a Classic Wallet, this can be either a file that is in “.key” format or in “.wallet” format. Both are encrypted with AES and contain private keys. To decrypt the wallet you need to install tools like OpenSSL and then enter the appropriate command line via the shell using the password.
Export your private keys
Move your bitcoins to another wallet solution to avoid further issues or risks described above.

If you don’t remember the password, feel free to reach out to us for wallet recovery services to recover your MultiBit wallet. As a rule, decryption is likely to be complex and tends to be the case for professionals.

As always, each case is unique and depends on the details. We can’t and don’t want to give you a blanket promise of success, but we have had a consistently positive experience with the recovery of MultiBit wallets for our customers.

Recover MultiBit HD Wallet with Password

An HD wallet is a standard that allows you to recover the wallet using the so-called seed. With MultiBit HD wallets users were able to choose the amount of words included in their seed phrase, with either 12 or 18 seed words.

If you took the trouble to write down and keep the seed back then, you can import it into another wallet. For example, Electrum Wallet is a popular alternative for this because it is also a light client. However, when entering the seed, one has to keep in mind that the default derivation path for MultiBit wallets is not recognized. Otherwise, the recovery process with the seed is the same as with any other wallet.

How to Recover MultiBit HD Seed — Step-by-Step

Locate your Wallet on your computer Just like the MultiBit Classic recovery process, the MultiBit HD wallet file can be found in the following folder, depending on the operating system:

Mac OS

~/Library/Application Support/MultiBit/<wallet-name>

Windows

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\MultiBit\<wallet-name>

2. Import your wallet using your password and decrypt it You need to decrypt this wallet file to get the seed/keys. For an HD Wallet, this is a file that is in “.wallet” format. To decrypt the wallet you need to install tools like OpenSSL and then enter the appropriate command line via the shell using the password.

3. Export your seed

4. Move your bitcoins to another wallet solution to avoid further issues or risks described above

Recovering your Multibit password

On the other hand, if you have forgotten your Multibit password the process of recovery is very different. Unfortunately, because Multibit is no longer maintained as software, you cannot contact their support team for help. To recover your Multibit password there are a few tips you can try:

Search common places where you keep notes and passwords written down
Try all possible password combinations you have used in the past
Keep a list of passwords that you have tried so you don’t waste your time

If none of these tips work the only other option that is safe is to use crypto recovery services like The Crypto Retriever. Other options like brute force or dictionary attacks can reduce your chances of recovering your Multibit password and accessing your Bitcoin. TCR has the necessary knowledge, experience, and technical means to recover passwords as well as corrupted or lost data sets.

Telegram — TCRetriever

Medium - The Crypto Retriever

https://www.youtube.com/@TCRetriever

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